THE ROYAL SNUFF BOX

Author: Barbara Hazard ISBN: 9780709084631 3/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: ROBERT HALE LTD.
Time Period: Regency

Lady Julia was a beauty who stood out even in a London filled with lovely ladies and for a rake like Robert Hammond, she was an appealing available female to be conquered with all his seductive skills. For an upright gentleman like the Earl of Bradford, she was a young woman whose show of virtue clearly masked the most devious designs. And for the Prince of the Realm himself, she was a subject from whom he expected the most proper obedience to his own most improper wishes. Clearly Lady Julia had to be on guard against the strength of the passions she inspired...and against her own unexpected weakness...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Barbara Hazard’s THE ROYAL SNUFF BOX is pure fun! A slightly risqué departure from tales of this time, it is non-stop action from start to finish. Filled with innuendo, wit and excellent dialogue, it amused me so much that I found myself laughing as I read.

Lady Julia Reynolds is in her early thirties, a beautiful woman who has not shown the least bit of untoward behavior in the five years since her husband’s demise. She is scandalized when a rather unusual visitor arrives bearing long-stemmed roses and offering her snuff, a habit she thinks is disgusting and dirty. But it is not the snuff that startles Lady Julia as much as the snuff box—the box that bears an image of a woman who looks uncannily like Lady Julia herself!

Thoroughly dramatic and with all the undertones a reader might expect given the shock Lady Julia endures on the very first page, this is a tale of royalty, the arts and a woman who must learn to accept romance—and all it entails—rather than shy away from it when it is offered her. Lady Julia changes drastically from the time the reader meets her to the moment her story ends, and while her journey is marked with trials and misunderstandings, it is heartwarming.

Kay James